"ICAPO seeks to ensure the widest possible integration of alternative methods in the OECD's influential guidelines and programmes."

Welcome

The International Council on Animal Protection in OECD Programmes (ICAPO) seeks to ensure the widest possible integration of alternative methods in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) influential guidelines and programmes. The OECD is an economic alliance of 30 of the world's industrialised countries. Based in Paris, the OECD co-ordinates the development of standardised chemical testing guidelines which are then adopted by the member countries. The OECD also co-ordinates the development of chemical testing programmes, such as its current programme on endocrine disruptors.

AOP

The OECD manages the Adverse Outcome Pathway Wiki, part of a larger set of tools termed the AOP Knowledge Base. The Wiki allows building of Adverse Outcome Pathways via scientific crowd-sourcing. It is envisioned that curating and organizing available data on chemical-response and response-response interactions into an AOP framework will speed progress in predicting the toxicity of chemicals without whole animals.

Learn more about the AOP Wiki and the OECD AOP Program. The scientific literature is now replete with examples of particular AOPs and uses for them. The AOP Resource Sheet (docx) provides a list of key resources you may wish to consult.

QSAR Toolbox

The OECD maintains the QSAR Toolbox, which is a computational tool that can help international regulators, the chemical industry and other stakeholders group chemicals into categories to fill information gaps without new testing. ICAPO has contributed financial and policy support to the development of the toolbox.

The QSAR Toolbox is freely available software that can be used to fill information gaps needed to assess hazards of chemicals. The Toolbox incorporates information and tools from various sources into a logical workflow. Grouping chemicals into chemical categories is crucial to this workflow.

In November 2018, the QSAR Toolbox 4.2.1 was released and is available for free download. This was a service release to fix the bugs and improve the WebService interface. For more information about OECD QSAR toolbox related activities and instructions on how to download the software visit the OECD OSAR Toolbox website.